Man, some days I just wake up feeling like I’ve abused my body just a little to much the past couple of weeks. Switching gyms had helped a lot.
Feb
11
Category Archives: me
Jan
23
The Gym
Sometimes I feel like I’m just spinning my wheels in the gym. No, I’m not wasting away the hours on the stationary bike. I’m, as they say, pumping iron.
My strength is up, for sure, and working put feels great, but … something … what is it. Maybe I need to do a different kind of workout. I heard that P90 thing is pretty good.
I don’t know what I need to do. Maybe one day some indoor rock climbing, the next swimming, the next a mad full-body mix at the gym, the next canoeing, the next something else.
Jul
08
Day 19 of 60
Workout: Arms
Like the last Shuttle launching today, I blasted my arms. My tweaked my lower neck waking up (uhhh what?) this morning, so I wanted to avoid back-stressing exercises like standing barbell curls. I opted for single arm dumbell exercises mainly, and it was a fun workout. I also couldn’t resist that rye bread lying around in the kitchen this morning, so having a slice with some jam on it before my workout, as opposed to going in fasted like usual, was awesome. I had endless energy.
BI – Standing dumbell preacher curls: 20 pounds x 8 per arm, non-stop, no break until I couldn’t curl any more. I probably did 8 sets, my last one was 3 painful reps, my biceps were on fire.
TRI – Single arm rope cable extensions: 30 pounds x failure per arm, non-stop, no break until I was down to 3 reps max. Again, more fire.
BI – Seated alternating dumbell curls: 25 pounds non-stop. This single set lasted two songs (5-7 minutes?) and I must have done 40 reps per arm. I only stopped because I was bored — but again, fire fire fire.
TRI – Standing ez-curl cable pushdowns: 95 x 15, really short break, another set, etc until I started crying a little.
BI – Standing ez-curl cable curls: 60 x failure for 3 sets. This time I peed my pants and called for mommy. A crowd is gathering.
TRI – Seated machine triceps, like preacher curls but backwards: Some weight, 8-10 reps, 2 sets. I had enough. Fuck you gravity.
Then I topped it off with forearm curls and grip twists. I had arms a junkie would kill for; veins a popping everywhere.
Jul
07
Day 18 of 60
Can you read that upside down? Good. Either I weigh 3.261 pounds or 192.3
Yes, I did work out since the last post, I just forgot to update. Slow and steady beats rapid weight loss, so hovering in the 192′s for the week isn’t bothering me. What’s bothering me is this amazing rye bread that Anita brought home last night. I made a sandwich for Erik for school this morning and it took everything in me not to JUST EAT THE WHOLE DAMN THING slathered in butter, maybe some blueberry jam, or cheese …. I’m fucking drooling here.
Workout: Shoulders
My lower back has been tight all week, so rather than aggravate it with standing shoulder presses (which takes a toll on the entire back when I push heavy) I chose to do mainly sitting delt exercises. They felt great, I never did the sitting Arnold Press delt machine before … and can see why I won’t too often in the future. Free weights always work better. And for shoulders, dumbells rule. After the machine I did solo arm overhead presses, pre-loaded with single arm lateral raises. Holy crap what a burn. Yo momma!
Now I’m sucking down an awesome blueberry and strawberry smoothie with two awesome scoops of whey protein. This is tastier than a cheesecake any day, and my body is soaking up the only carbs I’ll purposely eat for the rest of the day. Enjoy the glucose you lard filled muscles, that’s all you’re getting!
Jul
04
Day 15 of 60
Well 2 pounds either way is negligible, but I’d rather it be down. Still, I did eat a giant lasagna last night (first carb heavy meal in two weeks) so that explains part of it.
Workout: chest and core
Strength and endurance were down which is odd. You’d think the aforementioned pasta meal would have stocked my muscles with spare glycogen. Meh, probably all went straight to my carb starved brain. Anyways, I never expected radical weight loss, I’m still getting loads of protein so I might even be putting on muscle mass during this time.
Also, why is my auto-correction capitalizing Carb? Wtf. Oh well see, WTF should be.
Jul
01
Day 12 of 60
Workout: Arms, Core
Today was killer.
Lying triceps ez-curl extensions + standing ez-curl close-grip curls: 60 x 12 x 4
Cable rope pushdowns + standing cable curls: whatever x 10 x 3
Dumbell 1-arm skullcrushers + concentation curls: 20 x 12 x 3
Wrist curls
Topped off by 10 minutes of core, I was in a hurry so just did planks until I cried, hanging leg raises, etc.
Jun
30
Knee and spine
If you’re following my current 60 day workout posts you might wonder when I do legs and lower back.
I can’t, at least not as often as I want. My right knee has been plagued by things since I was 17 and broke it at summer camp one year. I slipped and my patella (kneecap) flung itself to the outside of my knee. Surgery fixed the tendons and pulled out a quarter sized chip that popped off something. About 6 months later I could walk without crutches, thanks to physio, but I never regained my flexibility. I’m stuck with a maximum bend of just over 45 degrees. Oh well, after a year I could ski and bike and run and do everything.
Much grinding and clicking and occasional arthritic pain followed me since then.
In 2007 I went on a canoe trip wayyyy up north on Atlin Lake, BC. One day we left the canoe behind and hiked 40 kms to Llewellyn Glacier. Once up on the glacier we were being really REALLY stupid by walking around on the edge of the breaking face, which was just riddled with crevices, fake crevice covers (thin ice), and the constant sound of rushing melt water just under our feet. We were making our way off, because we realized how fucking stupid we were being up there, when the ground under me disappeared and I fell into a hole. I saved myself by falling chest first a bit, and managed to crawl out of a deep hole. -50 points for being retarded and climbing up there without crampons, rope, or brains.
So during that little spill my knee did a funky pop snap thing, but since our legs were completely numb from the gazillion little stream / rivers crossings we had to endure to get there (ever step into a fresh glacier stream just a few hundred feet from their icy source? I didn’t know water could get that cold without freezing), I didn’t feel much other than “uh oh, wtf was that?”
We hiked 20 km back to camp, fell asleep, sunburned, hungry, and happy that we didn’t run into any grizzlies. We should have. Another reason we’re fucking idiots.
The next morning my knee was swollen badly, and I could hardly walk. Oh well, the rest of the trip was in the canoe. Eventually we were done and drove home to Vancouver, by then my knee was completely fucked. I couldn’t straighten it out, it was locked tight, and I could barely walk.
So, that turned into surgery. I tore the meniscus (little spongy squishy thing that sits between the bones so your parts can slide around properly). Physio and rest fixed it a bit, but its never been the same. Until just a few months ago I was in chronic pain, guzzling Advil and avoiding walks longer than 5 minutes. Yes, that made working out really hard some times.
Finally a few months ago (like a year and a half after surgery) it started to act a little more normal. Knock on wood, but for the last few months I’ve been able to go on long walks, long bike rides, and work out my legs at the gym. I can actually squat, fucking hooooorah.
As for my spine, I have a slight curvature and bulging disc. The x-ray is cool, I look like a snake. So deadlifts are out, which sucks hard.
Jun
30
Day 11 of 60
Workout: Shoulders, Legs
Today I skipped doing standing barbell overhead press, once in awhile you gotta mix things up.
Instead I did..
Dumbell overhead press: 50 x 7 x 4
Single arm dumbell overhead press: 35 x 12 x 3
Machine rear delt flyes: 60 x infinity and beyond, just reps out of hell, 30 second rest, repeat until arms hung limp.
Cable rotations + cable flyes: Three rounds, 10-15 reps, over and over until I cried a little.
Dumbell lateral raises: Using 10 pounds, raised and held until pain. 10-20 seconds per lift, side and front.
The knee was feeling OK, but a few days ago I had a lot of problems, so again I don’t want to aggravate it.
Leg press: 4 plates, 10 reps, 4 sets.
Calf raises: Bodyweight per leg, alternating, reps until legs squishy.
Jun
29
Day 10
Ahh there we go, back on the bandwagon.
Workout: Back
Close grip cable pulldown: 160 x 6 x 4
Yikes, 160 is pushing it, and the 6th rep on the last two sets required a bit of cheating. That’s OK though, just a few weeks ago 135 was killing me.
The rest of my back workout was higher rep, deeper contractions. I had a dream where I was doing face pulls and could really see and feel the scapula muscles getting a better workout that way. So I lightened the load, contracted like a maniac and goddamn that felt good.
Face pulls: lightweight x 20 reps, 2 sets
Seated cable rows, shoulder wide grip: 115 x 15 x 3
Wide grip lat pulldown: 100 x 15 x 3
Close grip pulldowns: 100 x 12 x 2
Jun
23
Day 4 of 60
Workout: Chest, Core
Bench Press: 147.5×8 reps, 4 sets
Bench is an exercise I “rebooted”, as in I decided to lower the weight and start from scratch with about 4 weeks ago. I was up to 175 pounds for 5 reps, but just for 1 or 2 sets. I know strength is important for mass, but something didn’t feel right and I wanted to be at that weight for a solid 8 reps. What I did a few weeks ago was start back at 135 for 4 sets, 8 solid, perfect form reps. The next workout I went up 2.5 pounds on each side, and so forth. At 145 pounds (what I did last chest day) doing 8 reps was still good, but the last one was pushing it, especially on the 4th set. From here on I’ll be going up in 1.25 pound increments (praying those only two 1.25 pound weights don’t disappear).
Pushups + dumbell flyes (superset): 15 pushups, 8 flyes with 30 pounds, 3 sets
Machine bench press: 100 pounds x 15 reps, 3 sets
Core was done as usual, around 20 minutes. Planks, bird dogs, hanging leg raises (straight, then bent), side bends with a 45-pound plate in my fingertips (feels great on the forearms). Walked out of there exhausted, phew!